A Montana man who filed this week to run as a Green Party candidate against Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) was previously being paid by the state Republican Party, according to a new report.
Green Party hopeful Timothy Adams was paid by the Montana Republican State Central Committee from October 2013 through May 2015, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press. Adams’s role within the party was not clear.
Tester, whose state backed President Trump by 20 points in 2016, is considered a vulnerable senator on the ballot in November. A bid from a third party candidate like Adams would raise the prospect of splitting the vote.
{mosads}Adams filed to run in a 2012 state House election as a Libertarian, but ultimately withdrew from that race.
Danielle Breck, the coordinator of Montana’s Green Party, told the AP that one other person filed to run on the Green Party line in this year’s U.S. Senate race, setting up a primary race.
Multiple Republicans, including State Auditor Matt Rosendale and businessman Troy Downing, have also filed to challenge Tester.
In Montana’s 2012 U.S. Senate race, Libertarian candidate Dan Cox received nearly 32,000 votes in an election where Tester defeated his Republican challenger by roughly 18,000 votes.